Price evolution of silver in the United States

1. Relevance of the price of silver
2. Price evolution of silver
   1. Absolute price of silver per year
   2. Inflation adjusted price of silver per year
3. Conclusion
4. FAQs about silver's price in the the United States
5. Price evolution table and full chart

Before moving on, it is also important to highight dat our data set of prices for silver has some gaps. From the 48 year period we will be looking at between 1975 and 2023 there are 4 years we do not have data for. These years are 1979, 2008, 2010, 2021. So please keep that in mind moving forward.

Price evolution of silver

The average price of a ounce of silver between 1975 and 2023 was $10.76, with the lowest price being $4.42 in 1975 and the highest $35.52 in 2011 (at least within the timeframe we have data for).

Absolute price of silver per year

Our data source for this article was: Trading economics .

The absolute price of silver in the the United States has gone from $4.42 in 1975 to $23.42 in 2023. That's an absolute increase of $19, or 429.86% in a period of 48 years. (go to the next section for inflation-adjusted values).

This increment has not been linear though. During this period of 48 years the price of silver actually decreased year over year 26 times, in 1976, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021.

The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of a ounce of silver was in 2021, when the price dropped by $-20.58, or -100%. The biggest price increase was $4.52, or 61.33% in 2006.

So yes, it's had its ups and downs, but overall, price increases outweight the deceases, making silver pricier than it used to be.

Inflation-adjusted price of silver per year

As accurate as the information above might be, it can also be somehow deceiving. This is because the value of money changes over time, usually decreasing. That means that $1 of today's money cannot buy as much as $1 in the past. This phenomenon is called inflation, and can make it complicated to compare historical pricing data. Luckily, we can adjust for it and calculate what a dollar value of the past would be equal to in today's money.

So let's not take a look at the evolution of the price of silver in the the United States, in that same 48 years period between 1975 and 2023, but adjusting prices to inflation (aka. in today's money).

When we adjust for inflation, we see that the price of silver actually peaked in 1980, when it cost $82.69 (in today's money), and was at its lowest in 2001 when it sold for $7.83.

The biggest drop in adjusted price happened in 1981, when the inflation-adjusted price dropped by $-45.27 (-54.75%). The biggest spike in adjusted price was in 1983 when it jumped by $9.04 (33.52%).

The average price of silver during this period of time, adjusting for inflation, has been $21.02, and the most current price of $23.42 is 11.42% above that average.

Conclusion

The absolute price of silver has increased by $0.05 ($0.21%) in the last decade, and $19 (429.86%) since 1975. But that comes as no surprise, as prices always tend to increase over time due to inflation.

Now, as we've explained earlier, the absolute price of a product does not necessarily represent its affordability fairly. For that we have to look at its inflation adjusted price, or in other words, the price evolution in today's money.

When we look at the inflation-adjusted price of silver, we see that it has varied ± 196.73% over this period of time, and is currently 11.44% more expensive than the average over these years , yet 12.64% cheaper than in 1975! .

So not everything is bad news after all!

Even at $23.42 (per ounce), silver is actually more afordable in 2023 than it was in 1975.

So if there had to be one single take away from this article it would be this: The average person has to make less of an economic effort to purchase silver today than in the past.

That being said, the current price of silver might be somehow close to what it was in 1975 (in today's money, of course), but it has had so much volatily over the years that it's really hard to predict how it might evolve from here.

FAQs about the price of silver in the the United States